Week 4 2026
We are closing out the last week of January already and this probably has been the best January in years in terms of progress, consistency, and mindset.
This past week some highlights include getting more progress done in cleaning out my house.
I'm going to interrupt myself here and talk about my dad. My dad once again helped me rearrange some stuff and helped me organize my belongings on Wednesday. I saw my dad again on Thursday and got to treat him out for a late birthday dinner at a local Japanese joint. We got to talking about our 88 year old Uncle Kam and his thriving lifestyle and actually had an important conversation about finances surrounding marriage. I was pretty caught off guard about how passionate my dad became when discussing his discomfort regarding his criticism over how my wife and I handle finances. I felt like there were tears welling in his eyes as he spoke to me about how he completely believes that pretty much all divorces stem from financial problems. I told him that our finances are NOT split right down the middle, I discussed some of our former resentments with the decisions regarding our home, and spoke to him about our current arrangements and distributions of wealth. We sat in the car for about another 20 minutes after parking just talking about some of these feelings I had about our financial endeavors and goals. This little evening got me to really appreciate some of the quality time I spent with my father this week. I hope to keep the good vibe going and dare I might say I may miss this time we have together when I don't have a project for him to do together as father and son.
On Thursday, I had the privilege of attending a union meeting – staying alert from 9 am with 'active' participation to 2:30 PM and then having the rest of the evening to do whatever I want. After the union meeting I attempted to be as proactive as I could. First stop, I took the M5 straight to Vea's for a smog. I was so grateful to see my buddy Vea for the first time in like 2 years and the cherry on top was my old 30 year old car passing the smog check! We mainly spoke about his thoughts on parenthood and generational trauma. It made me so happy to see him thriving with his two children and fulfilled with fatherhood. I wish that man the best and more; I certainly miss the days of seeing him nearly every week for rock climbing and post workout dinners. As I was going to leave my brother Vincent came to drop by after he had finished work. I got to catch up with him for a little and he's so god damn busy with his new job that he rarely texts back on time now. He seems to ~actually be focused on studying for his professional engineering license. Hope he passes! After seeing Vince and Vea I got to work on my house and then take my dad out for dinner.
Saturday I took my mom, dad, brothers, brothers girlfriends, and my wife to a birthday dim sum for muh wife. Ideally I would have liked for them to come here to El Cerrito and have coffee but Kath really didn't want to clean the house. It was nice to have everybody together and of course as always, there's always a conversation involving money or some family expectation. Vincent and Viv are gonna get married this May and have yet to really solidify plans. I think this year I'm going to request a full week off for my birthday to spend time with the family for the days leading up to their wedding. Shit I need to fill out the annual vacation request form. Darren and Gigi seem to be rolling steady and don't want to spend money either haha. It was nice for the family to see Kath for the first time in a long time because shes constantly battling GI problems for the past 4 months now. After dim sum we all pretty much split ways and Kath and I went off to buy groceries, set up cameras at the house, and then back to my parents house to pick up more food and take a shit.
Sunday has also been a blessing. I got to attend Mike and Fay's baby shower with Kathleen and Alex. Looking back, its been quite a social week for me, these social endeavors really bring my mood up and have set the tone for the month! I failed to plan out my Sunday so it was kind of directionless this morning. If it weren't for Kath I wouldn't have remembered to buy a book for their incoming kid! I scrambled to get ready as fast as I could, headed out to Three Little Monkeys, and then went to Daimo to pick up their massive order of dumplings. I picked up Kath, went straight to Hercules where the party was located. We spent pretty much the whole day there, from 2:10 pm to 6:30 pm. I met two of Fay's friends, a lovely indian couple from Sac/Lodi; I already forgot their names, damn. There was great food, chinese dim sum, Lao staples of larb and lao sausage, Vietnamese bangers such as crab soup, egg rolls and seafood salads. I wanted to eat enough so that I wouldn't eat when I got back home hahaha. It makes me really happy to see Fay having a decently easy time with her pregnancy, Mike being super stable as always – never complaining just living and doing his thing! I miss my college friends when I don't get to see them for a long time.
It's been a busy week...I didn't give myself enough time to pursue hobbies and interests. I also didn't do a really good job of saving money either. Payday is this coming Friday and hopefully that will do me good.
This coming week we'll be celebrating Kathleens birthday in Mendocino. I've got two dinner reservations, and two other food related interests for the trip. I want to make it a point to do something else this trip - I don't want to stay back at the hotel and just browse our phones all day.
I think I'm starting to really realize that for me, having a direction is much better than having no direction at all.